Lab tests have confirmed a new Ebola infection in Liberia, involving a 30-year-old woman who died yesterday during transfer from a clinic to a hospital in Monrovia, according to a statement today from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Health officials immediately sent a team to launch an investigation and trace contacts in the community outside Monrovia where the woman lived and had been treated at a clinic, the WHO said. Also, Liberian officials convened an emergency meeting today to coordinate the response.
Two countries addressing flare-ups
Liberia becomes the second country in the outbreak region—alongside Guinea—to report reemergence of the disease. The new case seems to underscore a warning earlier this week from WHO officials that despite the end of the public health emergency of international concern for Ebola, sporadic cases are likely to occur because of lingering virus in the survivor population.
Liberia's flare-up is the country's third since its initial outbreak was declared over in May 2015. Its most recent cluster occurred in November 2015 and ended in the middle of January.
Confirmation of Liberia's latest case marks the region's 13th recurrence of the disease. The Ebola virus can linger in immune-protected parts of the body, such as eyes and testes, and sexual transmission has been suspected as the source of some recent illness clusters.
Over 1,000 contacts in Guinea
Neighboring Guinea is battling an outbreak centered near a village in the southern Nzerekore district, where nine cases and seven deaths have been reported.
In a recent update on the response to Guinea's Ebola cluster, the WHO said more than 1,000 contacts have been identified and nearly 800 were immunized with VSV-EBOV in a ring vaccination campaign that it is coordinating. In a large earlier trial in Guinea, VSV-EBOV, developed by Canadian scientists and licensed by NewLink Genetics and Merck, was found to be highly effective, and it has been tested and deployed in other Ebola clusters.
The WHO has sent a 75-member team to help local officials in Guinea, as well as two clinicians to help in Nzerekore's Ebola treatment center.
See also:
Apr 1 WHO statement
Mar 31 CIDRAP News scan "Guinea reports 2 more deaths in 9-person Ebola cluster"
Mar 29 CIDRAP News story "WHO declared end to Ebola public health emergency"
Mar 31 WHO story on ring vaccination in Guinea
